In a robotic system, one or more tools may be telerobotically controlled by an operator to perform a procedure on an object at a work site. A camera is provided at the work site to capture images of end effectors of the tools as they interact with the object to perform the procedure, so that the operator may view their movements on a display while telerobotically controlling the tools using associated input devices.
During the procedure, it may be useful to provide the operator with tool information such as whether a tool is energized at the time or which of a plurality of tools is energized at the time or which robotic arm is operatively coupled to a specific tool at the time. The tool information may be provided as text or a graphic in an area on the display which is proximate to its corresponding tool so that the information may be readily associated with the tool. However, such positioning of the tool information may objectionably obstruct images of the tools and/or objects upon which the tools are performing a procedure at the time. Also, when the end effectors of two or more tools are in close proximity to one another, it may not be readily apparent which tool the tool information pertains to at the time. This may be especially problematic if the tool information is stationary and the end effectors are moving.
Alternatively, the tool information may be provided in an area that is not proximate to the tool, such as in a boundary area circumscribing the display viewing area or off to one side of the viewing area to avoid obscuring images of the end effectors and objects upon which the end effectors are performing a procedure at the time. When the tool information is provided outside the gaze area of the operator, however, it may be distracting for the operator to visually find and/or associate the provided tool information with its corresponding tool because the operator's eyes must shift from the area in which the operator is currently gazing to another area on the display. In the case of a stereo display, the situation becomes even more complicated, because the operator's eyes not only have to shift vertically and horizontally around the display to find the tool information, they may also have to look for and focus on tool information at a different depth than the three-dimensional images of the object and tools that the operator is viewing at the time on a stereo vision display.